Speaking is about so much more than speaking, it’s about sharing your message and connecting with your audience. Alexia (Lex) Vernon joins us today to talk about how to speak as a total pro move, how to make the most of your time on stage and what it really takes to land a TEDx talk. Show notes with key points, takeaways, and links for this episode available at www.maggiepatterson.com/episode106.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

Alexia breaks down the notion that we have to be super extroverted in order to speak on stage

Alexia shares her best tip to find your natural speaking style and use it for public speaking

You want to create for your audience the same feeling you have when speaking to your best friend

Alexia shares the difference between an good speaker, and a great speaker that people will remember in years from now

People can’t just feel lit up during your speech, to be truly effective you want your audience to walk away knowing what they need to do differently

Alexia and I discuss another big hang up: having a story that doesn’t seem ‘epic’ enough

People learn in lots of different ways, don’t force yourself to tell a story that isn’t ‘you’

Alexia talks about what we can do now to jump start our speaking abilities and confidence

When watching other speakers, make sure you’re just absorbing how they make the speech their own and not starting to take their speaking tactics and make them your own

If you want to make doing a TED talk a goal, Alexia shares the number one tip for working towards that

As a TEDx event organizer, Alexia lets us in on what she looks for in an application for a speaker

Top 3 Takeaways for this Episode:

Speaking is about more than speaking, you want to light your audience up and have them walk away knowing what they want to do differently.

Get over the story you have about speaking, you don’t have to be extroverted or super high energy. You can do you on stage and still rock it.

TEDx talks aren’t about your message, they’re about an idea that’s worth spreading that’s new and never been heard. Your idea is the #1 thing organizers are going to look for.

Live events are the thing of nightmares and cold sweats for most of us, but Lori Kennedy has been running a successful event in the health space for the past four years. Lori’s going to share the need to know for any live event, what to plan for and how they can help you go pro in your business. Show notes with key points, takeaways, and links for this episode available at www.maggiepatterson.com/episode105.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

Hosting a live event can scare a lot of us, Lori shares what made her create her first live event

Lori shares what the numbers looked like for her first live event, including paid seats and tickets she gave away

Lori shares her number one tip for running a live event to save money

Every year of running her live event, Lori has added a new element to amp it up

Lori shares the number one thing to look at before deciding if you want to host a live event

Lori and I talk about the budget for running an event and the kind of budget items you should be watching out for

Marketing your live event is super important and printing can get expensive so you need to balance this cost accordingly

Mixing online and offline marketing is key for running a live event

Lori shares how hosting live events has helped her go pro in her business

People who have a message want to share it; so providing them a stage to do so can help you leverage yourself off of people who are more successful than you

Top 3 Takeaways for this Episode:

Lori’s events have grown her biz and established her credibility. How can you add a live component to your current business to help you go pro?

If you’re running a live event, sponsors can help you defray the big budgets involved.

For any live event, you need online and offline marketing, and a healthy budget to make it work.

Courses, programs, group coaching...all of these things are seen as the gold standard in the online world as they bring you passive income. Last week we talked about what launching a program looks like, but what happens when you actually run that course? Marie Poulin, the creator of Digital Strategy School joins us today to break down her journey from idea to launch to actually running the program. Show notes with key points, takeaways, and links for this episode available at www.maggiepatterson.com/episode104.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

Marie shares how long it took to get from the idea of the digital strategy school to where she is today

Marie lets us in on the process she went through to develop her course

Marie used a beta group to test and tweak her course, this helped her make some unexpected changes based on feedback

When developing a new course, it doesn’t matter how ‘pro’ you are, you will always have to work through self doubt and the impostor complex; Marie shares how she did so

There’s no magical formula for creating a course, but surrounding yourself with supportive and knowledgeable people is key

Marie explains how she transitioned from one to one work to ‘one to many’ work

Because we are busy and have a lot going on, where should we start if we’re thinking of creating a group course?

Hiring the people that you know are going to help you get your course launched is super important, and this will look different for everyone based on their business

Marie shares some ‘Marie Secrets’ for making ourselves seem more pro

Being very consistent and confident with who you want to work with is key to going pro with your course

Clients need a routine and need to know what it is for success; but we are working with humans so having compassion and kindness is key

Living up to your financial obligations is a huge part of going pro, make sure you set expectations and are super clear about the financial commitments you set

Top 3 Takeaways for this Episode:

Running a course and putting it out in the world may mean you need to do some mental work as all kinds of things can come up along the way.

Get help. You shouldn’t go this alone. Talk to people who’ve done this before to find out what’s really involved before you commit.

Running a course requires time and energy. If there’s a live component you need to show up and deliver your best.

Today we’ve got Racheal Cook from Rachealcook.com and the creator of Conscious Business Design joining us to talk launches. I invited Racheal as she’s launched her signature program more than 10 times and she has a lot of insight into what a real launch looks like, why you’re not likely going to have a 7-figure (or even a 6-figure) launch right away and gets real about the ins and outs of making a program like this happen. Show notes with key points, takeaways, and links for this episode available at www.maggiepatterson.com/episode103.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

Racheal talks about how many times she has launched her signature program and what launching looked like the first few times versus now

Ignorance is bliss! If Racheal had known how intense her program would be, she probably wouldn’t have done it

It takes a lot more for a launch then just putting it up and hoping people will find you, it takes a lot of hustle on the front end to promote it

It’s really easy to hear about the 7 figure launches, but you need to look at the money they put into it to get those kind of numbers

Systems are one of those things that feel so constricting, but when you have the right systems in place, you can grow your biz and flourish says my guest Sonaya Williams. If you don’t know Sonaya, you need to, she’s the brains behind the people, systems and tools in many big name businesses, and she’s one of the most strategic systems thinkers I know. Show notes with key points, takeaways, and links for this episode available at www.maggiepatterson.com/episode102.

Items Discussed in this Episode:

Some of us love systems, and some of us feel they are constraining; but they are necessary for our business

Sonaya shares what she thinks the most important system is for growing our business

Getting started on systems can be overwhelming; Sonaya gives us advice on how to get started

Every business no matter where you are needs systems, but you need to upgrade them based on the upgraded experience you’re giving your client

Being able to step out of the systems and hand them off to someone else will allow you to build your business more

Hiring is scary! Sonaya gives us her number one tip to find the right person and get them working within the systems that we’ve created

It may seem faster at first to just do it yourself, but if you can hand it off you won’t get in the way of progress

Sonaya gives us advice on how to figure out what tools to use in your systems based on where you are in your business

Choosing a system should be personalized to you and your business: how much support you need, how user friendly it is, how cost effective it will be for how you use it, etc.

As a CEO, you shouldn’t be the one learning the ins and outs of the tool, it should be someone on your team when you grow to the level of hiring

Sonaya picks one thing that separates really good, solid businesses from the rest

Take an unplugged vacation or at least a day! If you have the right systems in place, your business will not fall apart

Top 3 Takeaways for this Episode:

The follow up matters! It takes 8 to 12 follow ups to gain a new client. Create a system to follow up regularly and check in with these potential clients.

Start with the simplest system. Getting them on paper and put into effect will start to create momentum in your business.

You may outgrow your systems over time. We need to be constantly looking at and upgrading our systems as our business grows.